The Las Vegas Sun
Lepidopteran Lover Floats Butterfly Zoo Idea

The Las Vegas Sun
By Bob Shemeligian
1993-08-31

Wearing a stripped multicolored jersey and gold shorts, 48-year-old Alan Moore flew in and out of town late last week just like a butterfly. And like the lepidopteran, Moore, who makes his home in Allentown, Pa, hardly stopped to eat.

Then it was off to San Francisco, where Moore was scheduled to address the Garden Writers Association on the ecological and aesthetic value of...butterfly zoos?

Indeed, Moore may be the Johnny Appleseed of butterflies.

Two weeks ago, after he toured a butterfly garden at a composting conference in eastern Pennsylvania, Moore fell in love with butterflies and the feeling was reciprocated. Moore darted to a neighborhood nursery, purchased a butterfly bush (there is such a thing) and quickly planted it in his backyard.

"The bush was sappy, real fragrant," Moore said. "As soon as I planted it, two monarchs landed on the bush. I could have touched them. It was heavy."

Moore quickly left his landscaping business, stretched his wings and started traveling across the country to promote butterfly gardens and zoos.

What's the difference, you ask? "A butterfly garden is not enclosed. A butterfly zoo is screened," Moore explained.

Moore choose Las Vegas as one of his destinations because his parents live here, because he once attended Fremont Junior High and because he thinks butterfly zoos would be perfectly wonderful in "sin city."

"Las Vegas could do a butterfly garden like no one else," Moore said. "Butterfly zoos would be perfect for the casinos." And perfect for wedding chapels. "At weddings, you release a butterfly as the bride walks down the steps. Instead of rice, you'd throw butterflies," Moore said. "Also, you could put an attractant on the bride's veil so that butterflies would fly around the bride's head. It would be like a living canopy."

It may sound a little farfetched, but Moore has the support of the Sierra Club, which supports butterfly sanctuaries along power-line rights of way. The idea being that because of the butterflies, utility companies will mow and groom instead of spray herbicides.

But a butterfly zoo as a tourist attraction? Is Moore kidding? "It would be great," Moore said between sips of Coca-Cola. "The butterflies would land right on you. They don't eat, but they drink, and they like human sweat, so they'd mooch a drink."

Moore has been working so hard on his butterfly zoo proposal in recent weeks that he was hospitalized for exhaustion in the days before he left for Las Vegas. "I haven't been getting much sleep, and I haven't been eating," said Moore, who quietly took flight from his Allentown hospital after a night of tests. "I couldn't stay there. I had to much work to do," Moore said.

He finished his Coke and was out the front door of the newspaper before I could catch him. "Wait,": I said to Moore. "One more question." "Sorry," the butterfly man told me. "I've got to fly to San Francisco."

(For more information about butterfly zoos and gardens, call Walt Barbuck, secretary for the local branch of the Sierra Club 702-735-9411.)